Calif. governor drops appeal of 3-drug execution

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California prison officials said Wednesday that they are dropping the state's three-drug execution method to pursue a single-drug protocol recently adopted by other states.

A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman said the state was dropping its appeal of a court order striking down the three-drug regulation as improperly adopted.

"CDCR is not appealing the court's ruling," said agency spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman. "At the governor's direction, CDCR is continuing to develop proposed regulations for a single drug protocol in order to ensure that California's laws on capital punishment are upheld."

Several other states have turned to the single-drug execution in recent years in response to legal challenges.

Executions in California have been on hold since early 2006 when a federal judge ordered prison officials to overhaul its capital punishment procedures in response to an inmate lawsuit. Executions will remain on hold until the state officially adopts the procedure and federal courts sign off on the new method, which could take years. There are 725 inmates on California's death row.